Cody U. 
The devastating tornado that ripped through Kentucky in December of 2021 left their mark in more ways than one. This included extensive damage done to the General Motors Bowling Green Assembly Plant, the National Corvette Museum, and the NCM Motorsports Park. As a result of the aftermath, over 120 C8 Corvette Stingrays have been deemed unfit for sale, and will be scrapped.
Per a Corvette Blogger post, somewhere between 115-122 C8 Corvette Stingrays will never see the road. GM made the call to scrap the vehicles as the company was fearful of contamination from water during the storm, and wind damage taken in the wake of the Kentucky tornado. MC&T previously reported a roof fire had also been the culprit of shutting the factory down in the month of December, it is unclear if any of the Corvettes were the victim to the fire directly. The unlucky C8 Corvettes set for destruction are not able to be sold to the public, even though we’re sure there would be takers.
The Bowling Green Assembly Plant is where all of the Corvettes have been built since 1981. Yes, that includes the upcoming 2023 Corvette Z06 that debuted in October of 2021. That Z06 sports the most powerful naturally aspirated V8 to ever be put in a production car. The street legal race car harnesses a mid-engine 5.5 liter LT6 that provides 670 horsepower at 8,400 rpm. That’s good enough to post a 2.6 0-60 time on the drag strip.
The LT6 is hand built by master engine builders at the Bowling Green assembly plant, and each engine is stamped with the name of the builder who crafted it on the intake manifold. Full production for the 2023 Z06 at the assembly plant is slated for May of 2022, so no Z06 iterations were harmed by the tornadoes as far as we know. While the total price for the Z06 still remains a mystery to many, despite their best guesses, the Z06 Corvette visualizer is available online so you can still daydream until the build and price tool goes live.
